Saturday Spin: 24th May

Raam

El Tonto, NiceOneTom,
is this the winding road where we pealed off from some of the other guys?
Cruagh Road:
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.245136,-6.31216&spn=0.034309,0.080338&z=14

P

TinyExplosions

dub_skav wrote: »

How did yis get on with this? How far did you end up going, how long did it take?

Managed to do my planned spin yesterday, Arklow -> Dublin via Wicklow and Sally gaps, 140k all told.
The wind was horrible

My computer endeded on just over 135Km, with about 6.5hrs saddle time. For me, it was totally knackering, the wind was bad enough to make me want to quit cycling altogether at some points on the way up Sally Gap, but made it home eventually!

dub_skav

TinyExplosions wrote: »

My computer endeded on just over 135Km, with about 6.5hrs saddle time. For me, it was totally knackering, the wind was bad enough to make me want to quit cycling altogether at some points on the way up Sally Gap, but made it home eventually!

Fair play to all so. The wind was something I hadn't really contended with up until now - not pleasant at all. On some stretches that I know and was expecting to be doing about 30km/h, I was labouring in to the wind at 15 odd km/h. If it's windy like that for the W200 I reckon it'll be a very long day

niceonetom

Cruagh Road:
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll...,0.080338&z=14

yeah, that's where that carpark is.

could one of ye lads plot out the route we took? i really liked it but i don't know what point we left the n81 at.

i learnt an important lesson on saturday night: beer is not a recovery drink.

Raam

niceonetom wrote: »

yeah, that's where that carpark is.

could one of ye lads plot out the route we took? i really liked it but i don't know what point we left the n81 at.

i learnt an important lesson on saturday night: beer is not a recovery drink.

Thanks mate.
I have it on the Garmin, I'll stick it up this evening.

kenmc

niceonetom wrote: »

i learnt an important lesson on saturday night: beer is not a recovery drink.

Where'd you get that idea from?

I think that the 'non-alcoholic' bit indicates that it's not for alcoholics...

Chips Lovell

Raam wrote: »

El Tonto, NiceOneTom,
is this the winding road where we pealed off from some of the other guys?
Cruagh Road:
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.245136,-6.31216&spn=0.034309,0.080338&z=14

P

Yep, that's it, Cruagh Road, which then merges into Edmonstown Road. You should try the climb up it sometime. It's a good one.

TinyExplosions

el tonto wrote: »

Yep, that's it, Cruagh Road, which then merges into Edmonstown Road. You should try the climb up it sometime. It's a good one.

By good one, do you mean a killer... I know all about you and your understatement of hills

Chips Lovell

TinyExplosions wrote: »

By good one, do you mean a killer... I know all about you and your understatement of hills

It's a hard one alright.

RtD

niceonetom wrote: »

i learnt an important lesson on saturday night: beer is not a recovery drink.

I find White Russians work best, a good mixture of energy and protein. Bloody Marys are good for getting your vitamin levels back up also

TinyExplosions

RtD wrote: »

I find White Russians work best, a good mixture of energy and protein. Bloody Marys are good for getting your vitamin levels back up also

You are the expert in this area

blorg

dub_skav wrote: »

Fair play to all so. The wind was something I hadn't really contended with up until now - not pleasant at all. On some stretches that I know and was expecting to be doing about 30km/h, I was labouring in to the wind at 15 odd km/h. If it's windy like that for the W200 I reckon it'll be a very long day

Try to stick in a bunch, makes it a hell of a lot easier. I punctured on the Mick Byrne 200 yesterday at around 60km and had to limp the rest of the 140km on my own. After the turn back had horrendous winds; only reprieve being the climbs where the wind was blocked by the mountain! The climbs were actually substantially easier than the flat bits, it was that windy.

dub_skav

blorg wrote: »

Try to stick in a bunch, makes it a hell of a lot easier. I punctured on the Mick Byrne 200 yesterday at around 60km and had to limp the rest of the 140km on my own. After the turn back had horrendous winds; only reprieve being the climbs where the wind was blocked by the mountain! The climbs were actually substantially easier than the flat bits, it was that windy.

I think I saw some of the folks from the Mick Byrne, somewhere near Rathdrum?

I was coming from Arklow and have to agree about the climbs, at least on the climbs it was only my legs working against me, the flats were no fun.

blorg

dub_skav wrote: »

I think I saw some of the folks from the Mick Byrne, somewhere near Rathdrum?

I was coming from Arklow and have to agree about the climbs, at least on the climbs it was only my legs working against me, the flats were no fun.

It's likely, I've attached the bottom part of the route below so you can see where we went. You certainly picked the wrong day to cycle Arklow to Dublin! (The other way would have been a dream.) Which way did you go? Over the mountains?

Raam

niceonetom wrote: »

could one of ye lads plot out the route we took? i really liked it but i don't know what point we left the n81 at.

Here ya go: <link deleted>
I'm not sure if it's my PC or Google Maps that is acting up, but sometimes the whole route isn't showing.

Edit: screw it, Google maps is confusing me today, and me an engineer. I'll sort summat else out.

rogerb

blorg wrote: »

I've attached the bottom part of the route below so you can see where we went.

Hey blorg, is that image taken from Google Maps or similar? Do you have a URL for the whole thing?

blorg

It's a screen grab from SportsTracks, was limited by the height of my monitor ;-) - I'll sort out a complete route and upload it. Can supply gpx file also!

rogerb

blorg wrote: »

I'll sort out a complete route and upload it. Can supply gpx file also!

That would be fantastic, thanks!

dub_skav

blorg wrote: »

It's likely, I've attached the bottom part of the route below so you can see where we went. You certainly picked the wrong day to cycle Arklow to Dublin! (The other way would have been a dream.) Which way did you go? Over the mountains?

I saw a group of around 15/20 with 2 or 3 off the back between Avoca and rathdrum, must have been some of the Randoneers so.

I went over the Wicklow Gap E - W, then up Sally Gap from the West, went straight through and up Luggala, round to Enniskerry from the Roundwood side (that was the worst bit, slightly uphill and into the wind) then from Enniskerry to Bray and back into the city.

I really did pick a bad day, but I figure it can't get much worse than that so it was good training

blorg

I've put the Mick Byrne 200 route up on Bikely and MapMyRide, so whichever you prefer. It is from just a bit after the start (forgot to press the "start" button, duh) to Shankill on the way back, when my battery died. MapMyRide seems to simplify the route somewhat which means it is easier to load but less accurate and has a shorter length. I've also attached a KML (Google Earth) file taken directly out of SportsTracks from the original data - this would be more accurate than the processed exports from MapMyRide (and maybe Bikely too, not sure.) So you can fly around the route in Google Earth if you like!

rogerb

blorg wrote: »

I've put the Mick Byrne 200 route up on Bikely and MapMyRide

Cool, thanks.